Spillover effects and influencing factors of tourism eco‐efficiency for sustainable development: A case study of cities in the Yangtze River Delta

Tourism often brings about negative environmental impacts. Tourism eco‐efficiency (TEE) and its spatial coordination are of great significance for sustainable tourism development and environmental protection in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). TEE index system was established and applied in this study. The inter‐city TEE spatial correlation network is established by the modified gravity model and analyzed by social network analysis (SNA). Spatial Durbin model (SDM) was used to analyze the spatial spillover effects of the two centrality indicators of the network. Based on fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, we analyzed TEE enhancement configuration. The results show that: TEE in 26 cities in the study area has improved overall; the phenomenon of unbalanced development within the region still exists. In addition, the TEE of each city in the spatial correlation network of TEE in the YRD urban agglomeration is connected with each other, and there is a significant negative spillover effect. TEE is mainly affected by the level of economic development, industrial status of the tourism industry, tourism industry concentration, tourism investment level, tourism resource endowment, urban landscaping, and information development level. The combination of these factors and TEE can form five configuration patterns for TEE enhancement. This study combines SNA and SDM for the first time, and the conclusions obtained can more deeply describe the spatial correlation between different urban eco‐efficiency in the YRD. Aiming at the sustainable development of regional tourism, this study provides help for strengthening the protection of tourism ecological environment in the YRD.